College Girl
by Amy-Violet
Summary: Sam and Blaine's little girl is starting college! For the Blam week "Their Future" day.


"I'm sorry, Sam, but I think Brittany has a lot of nerve to just show up like this." Blaine was pacing around the hotel room.

"She's proud of Maya. I mean, University of Chicago! Full scholarship! What's not to be proud of?" Sam tried and failed to grab Blaine's hand as he paced past the bed he was sitting on the edge of.

"Maya _should_ be proud. _You_ should be proud. Brittany had fuck-all to do with it."

"Blaine, honey." Sam stood up and physically stopped Blaine from pacing. He wrapped both arms around his husband to immobilize him. "She's proud _of _Maya. She's her mother. That doesn't mean she's trying to take credit for her accomplishments."

Blaine snorted and tried to get loose. Sam held him tight and kissed the top of his head—an actually pleasant experience since Blaine finally stopped putting gel in it a few years ago.

"Also," Sam said, "you left someone out who should be proud. _You_. You've done as much to raise her as anyone. And she obviously gets her brains from you—and her good looks." Maya actually did look a bit like Blaine. Her hair was curly, and while it wasn't as dark as Blaine's, it was darker than Sam's or Brittany's. And she was Blaine's height.

"Very funny, Sam."

"I'm totally serious. Okay, not about the inheritable looks, though she definitely gets her fashion sense from you. But I'm totally serious about her brains. No way she'd be valedictorian of her class, about to start at the University of Chicago, without you."

"Sam, that's not—"

"It is true, Blaine, and you know it. And I'm not getting down on myself because I never went to college or implying that I'm stupid or anything like that. But if it had been just me, raising her by myself...well, she just wouldn't have turned out nearly as awesome as she is."

Blaine relaxed a little, finally. "She is pretty awesome, isn't she?"

"So awesome," Sam agreed. He loosened his immobilization grip on Blaine and started massaging his shoulders.

"Mmm...that's nice." Blaine relaxed more as he enjoyed Sam's hands on his shoulders for a few minutes. But then he tensed up again. "It just pisses me off that Brittany can just show up here in Chicago, after not seeing her for almost a year, and be like, 'Oh, let me take you shopping' and just take her away from us like that. On our last night with her before we move her into the dorm tomorrow and then have to go home without her."

Sam frowned. "I know. That...actually kinda pisses me off too. But I don't want to keep Maya and Brittany apart, I want them to have a good relationship..."

"You're way more tolerant than I could be," Blaine said.

"I don't know about that. You certainly tolerate a lot from me. My utter lack of style, my inability to stay awake after sex..."

"I could tolerate almost anything from someone who gives me such amazing orgasms."

"Speaking of which..." Sam maneuvered Blaine over to one of the beds. "We could stand around sulking that we're stuck in this hotel room without our daughter..." He untied Blaine's tie and dropped it on the floor. "Or we could find some way to enjoy having a hotel room to ourselves." He unbuttoned Blaine's shirt and whispered into his ear, "You know how I like to scream when you fuck me? And you know how I never get to because she'll be scarred for life if she hears?"

Blaine removed his shirt and lay back on the bed. "What about the other hotel guests?"

"Please. They shouldn't stay in a hotel if the sound of someone enjoying a good ass pounding will scar them for life."

XOXOXO

They got a pretty early start the next morning; Maya was too excited to sleep long, and she didn't especially try to be quiet while she got ready. They'd done all the orientation stuff yesterday—before Brittany snatched her away—and all that was left was the actual moving in today. Moving in and brunch. Blaine was determined to take them to a nice brunch.

Most of Maya's stuff had already been shipped to the dorm, so all they had to actually move was what she had packed in her overnight bag and the stuff Brittany had bought her on their shopping excursion yesterday. It was getting all her things unpacked that took a while. Blaine insisted on helping her decorate, even though Maya tried to gently persuade him that it wasn't necessary.

"Blaine," she said, "you know I love you and you know I think you have awesome taste. So I'm sure you won't be offended when I say that I don't want my dorm room to look like a forty-year-old gay man lives here."

"Okay, first of all, I am not forty, young lady! And second of all...these are _your _things. That _you_ packed."

"I know, but it's the way you're arranging them."

They both looked to Sam for support. "Oh no," he said. "You know I stay out of décor disputes."

While they squabbled, Sam made himself useful by hanging clothes in the closet, even though he knew Maya would probably reorganize everything later. Not only did he have no interest in mediating their décor disputes, but he knew they didn't really want him to. It was just a thing they did; they both seemed to actually enjoy it.

Everything Sam could handle was handled, and Blaine and Maya reached a decorating impasse that was broken only by the arrival of Maya's new roommate, Grace. They'd met her already over the summer; Grace had even spent a weekend at their house. She seemed like a nice girl, if maybe a bit uptight. (Actually, Blaine suspected the uptightness may have been an act for their sake, but he did _not_ share this suspicion with Sam.) The one thing they really liked about her—Sam especially—was that she had lived in Chicago her whole life. Sam had been very nervous about letting his little girl live in such a large city by herself, but he thought he could count on Grace, as a native, to look out for her.

Blaine and Sam chatted with Grace's parents while Maya helped Grace unpack and arrange her things. Sam held Blaine's hand the whole time, partly because that was something he liked to do, and partly to keep him from trying to help with the decorating any more. Grace's mother had lots of reassuring things to say about how wonderful Chicago was and how it really wasn't as dangerous as people thought. Grace's dad offered them lots of safety precautions to make sure Maya knew about—it was all good stuff to know, but the fact that he thought so many precautions were necessary kind of undercut his wife's message. Blaine could tell he was going to have to spend most of the trip home reminding Sam (and himself) how smart and responsible Maya was.

The cab ride to the restaurant they were going to was pretty; they took Lake Shore Drive most of the way there. Sam started singing, "Just trippin' on by on LSD..." until Blaine nudged him with a meaningful glance at Maya. "What?" Sam whispered. "She doesn't know what it means."

"Okay, honey." Blaine patted his knee. "You just keep thinking that. Besides, I'm pretty sure it's '_slippin'_ on by on LSD.'"

It didn't matter whether she would get it or not (she totally would); Maya was far too busy trying to take in the city on her left and Lake Michigan on her right to pay the slightest attention to what her dads were singing or chattering about.

Maya's phone rang just as they were walking into the restaurant. She answered it before Blaine could tell her to let it go to voicemail. "Hi, Brittany!...No, I'm all unpacked...Uh-huh, we're just about to have brunch...A place called, uh..." She backtracked onto the sidewalk to look at the name on the door. "Mister Andersonville...Yeah, I don't know, Blaine read about it somewhere, I guess he liked the name..." Blaine gave her a wrap-it-up signal. "Brittany, can I call you back later?...Uh-huh...Okay...Okay, bye."

About half an hour later, as Sam was recounting to Maya all the safety tips that Grace's father had shared with them, Blaine spilled his orange juice in his lap. Sam tried to help him clean up, but Blaine jumped out of the chair and excused himself. He didn't go to the restroom, though; after making sure Sam and Maya weren't watching, he went outside.

He had been keeping an eye on the window, and his hunch was correct. There was Brittany, about to enter the restaurant. He stopped her at the front door. "Hello, Brittany. What brings you here?"

"Blaine! I'm not too late, am I? I thought it would be fun for the four of us to catch up."

"Can I talk to you alone for a minute first?"

"Sure," Brittany said. And she stood and waited.

"How about in the bar? Let me buy you a mimosa—they're really good." The bar was less visible to Sam and Maya than the sidewalk was. Brittany accepted the mimosa offer, and Blaine ushered her in quickly.

They sat at the bar and he ordered their drinks. He sent Sam a quick text that he was hung up and would explain later before he turned to her and asked, "Why are you doing this, Brittany?"

"Doing what?"

"Just...showing up like this. Yesterday. And now, here. This is the last we're going to see Maya until probably Thanksgiving."

"She's my daughter! She's about to start college. I thought it would be nice for her to spend some time with her parent that went to college."

Blaine gripped the edge of the bar tightly and gave her a steely glare. With the most control he could muster he said, "Do not ever say that in front of Sam."

"I know you went to college, Blaine. And I know you're like a dad to Maya—"

"I'm not talking about me. I'm just her stepdad, I get it. I wasn't there for her when she was little, or for Sam..." Blaine and Sam had only been dating a couple months when Brittany returned from MIT for the summer, obviously pregnant. Maya was born in August, right before Blaine was supposed to leave for NYADA. Sam told him to go, and he went. By the time he and Sam reunited, Maya was already in school. "I wish I had been, but I wasn't and I can't change that."

"I'm not saying you shouldn't have—"

"I'm not done. If you were to make that comment in front of Sam about being Maya's only parent who went to college...You have no idea, do you? You didn't see how happy and excited he was when he got his first college acceptance letter and then his second and third, and then when he finally decided which one he was going to, and when he started making plans..." Blaine got lost for a minute in the memory of how amazing the future had looked then, and he hoped Maya's looked as amazing to her right now. Then he remembered what had happened next. "You have _no idea_ how devastated he was when he realized he couldn't go to any of them."

"He could have, though..." Brittany was starting to tear up.

"Britt, I know it was hard for you too." Blaine rested a hand on her arm. "When you and Sam decided to place Maya for adoption, everyone thought it was the smartest, most responsible thing to do. And it probably was, would have been, objectively. You could stay in college, Sam could go. That couple you had picked out to be her dads—they were great. Sam went over all their details with me in depth. They would have made great parents; I hope they did with another child. But then...well, you know what happened, you were there. Sam held Maya for the first time and he couldn't let her go. It was just that simple."

"But then how come I could?" Brittany asked. Those tears that had been starting to form were now starting to fall. "I want her back," she whispered.

"Brittany." Blaine tried to soothe her by patting her back. "You let her go once, and it wasn't a bad thing. Look where she is now; everything turned out great."

Brittany nodded. "Sam's an awesome dad. And you too."

"Sam is an awesome dad, you're right. But now he has to let her go too. Not forever—just like you didn't let her go forever. She loves you, she loves spending time with you."

"She resents me for not being there for her."

"Maybe a little," Blaine admitted. "But all kids resent their parents for something."

"My parents never let me hitchhike to the North Pole," Brittany said, grinning.

"All I'm saying is that _this moment_ is a bigger deal for Sam than it is for you. For him, pretty much his whole life changes after today. Can't you hang out with Maya some other time and let Sam have this moment with her to himself?"

Brittany downed the last of her drink. "No," she said, standing up. "You should be there too." She gave him a quick hug, thanked him for the drink, and left the restaurant.

Blaine returned to his husband and daughter. They had finished their meals and were looking at the dessert menu. Blaine's now-cold food was still sitting there. "What happened to you?" Sam asked. "You didn't even clean the juice off your pants."

"Sorry. I actually ran into someone I know. Did I miss anything?"

Sam squeezed his knee. Maya rolled her eyes. "Dad was just giving me a lecture about why I should never borrow Grace's pillow or let her borrow mine."

"Yeah," Sam said. "Because remember that time you went to camp and got lice?"

Blaine remembered that time really well. It was their anniversary. They had the house to themselves for once because Maya was away at camp. Just when they'd returned from their romantic dinner and were starting to do other romantic stuff on the couch, they got a call from the camp director saying that they had to come pick her up right away. They spent three hours driving to the camp, then another three hours nitpicking—literally picking nits out of her long, curly hair—in the middle of the night in a cheap motel room. That weekend really sucked. But Blaine actually smiled at the memory, because now it seemed totally worth it.

**A/N: Many thanks to LokiFirefox. I pretty much ripped off the idea for the Blaine/Brittany conversation from his "A Long Time Coming." Without his permission, but I hope he'll forgive me.**

**A/N II: A million points for anyone who can guess how I spent three hours of my afternoon yesterday.**


End file.
